Here it is! It is 12:30 am on a Sunday night and I am writing about birds. Why, you might ask? Well, I will tell you that I have been trying to post my blogs for two days now, but the busy road life has left me with no sleep. The last two days I have sat in front of my computer at night trying to write when all that comes out of my mind is gibberish, so I decided to postpone my writing! Mike's body calls for sleep, even if it is only five hours.

I arrived in Portland, Maine last Thursday and since then I have been running around like a mad man. "Busy is good," they say! I say, "Rubbish," in the back of my mind. This is something my good friend Richard Crossley would say. Well, maybe not exactly that but something of the sorts. Since my arrival I have enjoyed a wonderful whale watching trip with Derek and Jeanette Lovitch of Freeport Wild Bird Supply. Two very good friends, but I also find myself conversating the subject of, "BIRDS," with Derek all the time. Derek Lovitch is the perfect person to argue with because there is always knowledge there. Arguing more than talking during most of the encounters is what happens. Go Figure!

After my time with the Lovitch's (which I will elaborate on soon) I picked up my good ole' English mate Richard Crossley from the airport. Certainly one of North America's most premier birders, in my mind! We were to visit Kittery Trading Post for the weekend providing birding services. With the Nikon EDG binoculars around our necks we set out on one birding field journey each day. We had numerous participants on the trips and they were supremely entertained. Entertained? But how? Well, because Richard Crossley was the, "Man in Charge." The crowd was enamoured with his ability to use everything other than color and markings to identify a bird. We spent much time looking at things such as starlings and Mourning Doves just trying to get each participant of our field trip to learn to think objectively. What is the shape of the bird? What does the tail look like? How fast are the wingbeats? Questions like this make a birder reach down to the gut to find an answer. Look at shape and size! Once you are able to answer these questions about common birds, even trash birds like House Sparrow become important. Then you can apply this knowledge to the rest of the field. In due time, a birder will be able to identify all the common birds and they will (at minimum) know what is different. The idea is to actively think for yourself. A lesson I learned from whom other than, Richard Crossley.

Continuing with the weekend, Derek and Jeanette Lovitch along with myself left on a mission to view seabirds. Derek's friend, Josh Delcourt (Naturalist), from the boat named, "The Odyssey," tipped us on the crazy amount of birds seen the day before on the whale watch. Probably due to the low-pressure system that moved in on the coast, I assumed. Off we were looking at tons Greater and Sooty Shearwaters only 10-13 miles offshore. Let's not forget the two Leach's Storm-Petrels that Derek and I were able to spot! This was odd since they usually are found in their nest burrows this time of the day. We weren't going to complain. I actually think this was a nemesis Maine state bird for Derek. Congrats amigo!

Probably the most intriguing bird for me was one that is considered to be the most abundant bird in the world. The bird I am talking about is the Wilson's Storm-Petrel. This bird is an early breeder off of oceanic islands. They have a wide breeding range that includes the Atlantic Ocean. These birds were out in full force without a doubt.

Wilson's Storm-Petrel have paddle-like wings (rounded) and a fluttery flight. They will flap many times in a row and they use the air currents to float/lift above the waves as the tilt from side-to-side like a Northern Harrier over the water. Super cool to witness if you ask me. Almost a lazy type of flight as they ease their way over the breaking waves.


Check out this LBJ (Little Black Job)! What stands out in the picture? How about the white rump that is shaped like a narrow, "U?" How about the pale edges on the coverts? I particularly like the fact that they are molting their secondaries heavily at this time of the year. It gives them the illusion that they are longer, more sickle-winged like a Leach's Storm-Petrel.

No, we didn't fall for that mis-identification!

Okay, so we did! Nevertheless, we learned from our mistakes. Leach's has a strongly forked tail, is larger, and when they are close you can see the split in the rump (this is a strongly variable field mark). As Derek says (and I agree), if you can see any of these then you should already have identified the bird. Why? Well, Leach's Storm-Petrel flies like a Common Nighthawk. Their wingbeats are direct and jerky along with the way the tilt their body from side-to-side as they jerk their wings. So freaking cool!

These birds provided a ton of entertainment. I ended up leaving Derek and Jeanette on the top deck to venture to the bottom to get better photographs. I ended up on the stern of the boat to get the two shots above with my Nikon D200 and 300 mm F4 Nikkor lens! I was the only one down there so I got to watch the little guys chase the boat upwelling all alone. These are the times I feel so lucky to experience things like this.

Seabirds give me an energy I don't usually get inland. Maybe because I am trapped on a boat and something has to absorb the energy, so I end up running around on the lower deck. They provide a challenge even if they are easy! A moving boat along with uncomfortable stomach feelings provide challenges. Furthermore, sometimes you just have to go to the bathroom, but you stay on the bow/stern hoping to view something spectacular. You almost always do even if it is from a common bird like the Wilson's Storm-Petrel. Even this little bugger can be entertaining!

That is my quick little story from Maine. I am heading out into the spruce bogs with Richard tomorrow, so I am sure I will have a story to tell later. Please check back and I hope to hear comments about the blog. Good Birding!

Unexpected close encounters!

Colorado has a set of four mountains in the central core of the Rockies that comprise of what is known as, "The High Mountain Loop!" This is one of my most favorite places to go birding since it allows access to every mountain species you would want to find. The loop includes Guanella Pass, Georgia Pass, Boreas Pass, and Loveland Pass. The wet areas offer Wilson's Warbler, Fox Sparrows, and Lincoln's Sparrows. The spruce has Golden-crowned Kinglets, Brown Creepers, and Pine Siskins. The Pine's offer a collection of cool birds such as this male Red-naped Sapsucker. However, it may not be the pines that this bird is attracted to, but the mix of Ponderosa Pine and Quaking Aspen. I find many sapsucker nests in aspens trees here in the Rockies. Where there are aspen trees there is usually a Red-naped Sapsucker. What a striking bird! Don't you agree?

Once considered the same species as Yellow-bellied Sapsucker scientists discovered that differences do occur. Red-naped Sapsucker has a nearly all red throat, less distinctive malar stripe and of course, a red nape. The red throat extends through the black malar mark making it almost disappear (see photo above). Yellow-bellied Sapsucker has a prominent black malar stripe, but breeds in the east primarily. The Red-naped Sapsucker breeds in the Rockies and the inter-mountain west. You might ask why I called this sapsucker a male bird. Well, females show a white chin and then the red throat below. Can you see how the red extends all the way through the chin? That is the best way to tell the girls from the boys.

After coming off of the sapsucker trail, I was never so excited in my life then when this American Marten (AKA Pine Marten) ran out in front of my car and into the spruce woods. I quickly got my camera and headed into the woods after it. I darn near left my 4Runner in the middle on the road. I noticed the marten ran up a tree, so I figured I could snap a few shots. I have spent many months camping in American Marten habitat and have only seen one other one, so this was killer for me. This little one was actually fairly social as it climbed down the same tree I was standing next to. These creatures are so nimble in the canopy that the marten could have easily moved about it's way above me. Maybe this one was just as curious about me as I was about him/her.

The American Marten is a Mustelid otherwise known as a member of the weasel family. This mammal breeds all across the Alaskan and Canadian Taiga and also extends down into the Cascade Range, Rocky Mountains, and northern Appalachians breeding in mixed coniferous forest, but showing much preference to spruce. Populations are thought to be stable, but certainly a tough little bugger to see. This is probably why their population is well off; nobody can find them with regularity!

Quick Optics Tip: When I was in the forest looking at this Marten from my Monarch X binoculars I couldn't help but notice the depth-of field. When choosing a binocular make sure that you evaluate how far depth-wise your subject is in focus at one point. With the Monarch X, I could see the entire length of this marten, in focus, when it was looking at me. Pretty cool stuff! Good Depth-of Field allows the birder to view the subject more and not focus on focusing so much! Visit www.nikonbirding.com for more information on optics.

Thanks for reading and please join back for more Nikon adventures!

All photos were taken by Mike Freiberg with a Nikon D200 and a 300mm F4 Nikkor lens.

Broad-tailed Hummingbird nest!

Castlewood Canyon State Park lies about twenty miles south of Denver. I decided to check it out today for a little walk and some birding. All of the foothills birds are represented well there, but as I was walking down the trail I happened to see a female Broad-tailed Hummingbird fly away from me. The bird flew away, but stopped rather short on a branch so I knew I flushed the bird off of the nest. I carefully peered around only to find the above nest right on the edge of the trail. Quickly, I leaned over to count the eggs (2 off-white colored eggs) and then I stepped back about thirty feet. The female was hanging around and came back to sit on the nest once I was a comfortable distance away. The nest has a circumference of a half-dollar and the eggs are half the size of a pen cap. Really cool stuff. This was a first for me. These bird's nests are usually buried in the deep thickets and prying to see them usually meant disturbing the nest. Not worth it in my mind.


Check out the female here! This is typical from a plumage standpoint. The females have dark rufous on the flanks with a breast stripe as well. This bird has a postocular line as well as a straightish bill. Occupies low-mid levels in the forest, but males will perch really high to distribute their song. Broad-tailed Hummingbirds breed in the interior west and prefer semi-arid habitats even though this nest was found in an oak. This made viewing a bit dark and difficult, but I could really see detail with my Nikon EDG binoculars the amount of light that the binocular allows is pretty impressive giving us 10% more light than our Nikon Premier line.

The nest alone is very cryptic and can easily be over-looked. The inside of the nest is lined with a softer material that is mainly white. It may be down feathers, but I am not sure. The female is certainly territorial, but the male was nowhere to be found. These kind of encounters really make my time in the field worth it. Hummingbird nests can be exciting, because just finding them is a chore given the intensely small size.

I though this was interesting to share and I will have more for you very soon. Good birding!

Nikon Birding ProStaff!

The past few years Nikon has been building a ProStaff of professionals to assist with promoting our product nationwide. This last weekend we flew them out to Portland, OR for a little retreat. We do this once a year to build camaraderie and discuss new products available to birders. As always, the weekend was full of interesting and new experiences. We also were delighted to have other friends of Nikon present including Richard Crossley, Derek Lovitch (BIRDING magazine optics reviewer), Chuck Hagner (editor of Birder's World), and Tim Gallagher (editor of Living Bird). These friends have done such a great job of providing unbiased opinions in the past and we feel it is very important to gain that perspective in order to be successful. Above pictured, Derek Lovitch of Freeport Wild Bird Supply and Forrest Rowland of Nikon Birding ProStaff discussing the finer points of birding on the west coast. These two guys are killer birders and a wealth of knowledge!

Our time in the field was spent between filming our prostaffers for YouTube.com optics tips/website and birding, of course. The filming was done in the lowlands where birds like Lazuli Bunting, Western Scrub-Jay, and Tree Swallows dominated the avifauna. It was really nice to have some of these birds in the background as we were filming, just for the added touch. For much of us, including I, it was our first time being filmed intentionally. WOW, let me tell you that it is amazing how your knowledge just flies out of your head right after the camera is rolling. When I first got on camera I had trouble stating my name and occupation.....PATHETIC! Nevertheless, after that everything went smooth. I spent some time discussing ED glass (Extra-low dispersion) and how it applies to our new Nikon EDG Fieldscope. You will have the chance to see the clips rather soon. By the way, this new fieldscope is ridiculously clear. The eyepiece has a larger ocular than we have seen in the past with our Nikon Fieldscope III, including the zoom eyepiece. It feels like you're looking through an over-sized toilet paper roll for your field-of-view. Just amazing! The image really, "POPS," because of it. Not to mention the new dielectric coatings which helps even further in bringing all of the different color wavelengths on the same plane, including purple. Doing this eliminates color fringing around your subject. Combine all of this with increased field-of-view and far improved depth-of-field (which makes sea-birding and hawk-watching easier). I'm stoked to get this new EDG in my hands soon!

Our Nikon Birding ProStaff can be characterized as fun-loving, easy going, and down-to business types. We have been able to develop a close relationship to one another during the past few years becoming more of a family. As the year progresses, I will discuss some of our prostaffers to update each and every one of you out there about Nikon's birding programs and the faces behind them.

The photo above Adrian Binns of Wildside Nature Tours and Shawneen Finnegan (freelance artist and Nikon Birding ProStaff) in the foreground and Tim Gallagher of Living Bird magazine in the back peering through the canopy in search of a Western Wood-Pewee that was incessantly giving off it's "PEeer."

Just so you all know.......we found the bird along with some other delights such as a Black-headed Grosbeak hanging low in the canopy preening itself.


The weather was a bit rainy (go figure) in the area so many of the birds we hoped to get were very difficult. For instance, numerous times we heard a Sooty Grouse calling it's WOOF-WOOF-WOO-Wooo-wooo, but were not able to find the bird. This boom they give can be felt just as easily as heard. Tough dang bird to see. I have heard many in my life (maybe a dozen or so) and never have been able to get one out of the bush. Still a nemesis for me.

This Black-throated Gray Warbler above graced us with a visit to water drip while at Tualitin Hills Nature Park just west of Portland. You might ask why there isn't a black throat? Good question! The female Black-throated Gray Warblers have white throats and chins, outside of the few that might just have some streaking on the throat. This female is very fresh and even has a very dark crown. I would expect normally for the crown to be broken up with some streaks and not as uniform as the male's crown. These birds breed in the western United States only and are most often associated with Pinyon Pine and/or oaks of some kind. The key is to look for a mixture of semi-arid habitats that may often include live-oaks. These birds are very active in their foraging nature occupying anywhere from ground level to thirty feet high in vegetation. They actively glean off branches looking for insects while sometimes hovering as well. A welcome surprise to our group since at that point in the day we were all getting a bit tired!

I ended up being so busy taking candid shots with my wide angle lens that I wasn't able to do as much bird photography as I wanted. I'll live! We spent one day on the coast looking for seabirds where I once again could not get the look of Rhinoceros Auklets that I have been yearning for. Silhouettes do not count in Mike Freiberg's book! I guess I will have to try another time. We visited Haystack Rock on the coast of NW Oregon to look for Tufted Puffins. What a bird! We had three to four pairs that were right on top of us since the tide was still pretty low. We even had four that flew off the rock and right over our heads. I will be looking to Tom Dunkerton for some shots of these birds since, naturally, I did not have my camera with me. The sacrifices we make!!!!!

This Tufted Puffin was digi-scoped by Tom Dunkertona Nikon 82mm Fieldscope and a P5100 Coolpix at a distance of 100 yards

All in all, the group really had a wonderful time and I was proud to have this trip run as well as it did. Thanks for joining in on our adventures and I will be sure to post back up soon. Good Birding!

Chestnut-sided Warbler in Colorado!

This past weekend Nikon held a birding weekend event with Jax Outdoor Gear in Fort Collins, Colorado. The rain that was forcasted held off for both of our field trips and we were able to see some very nice birds. One in particular is this Chestnut-sided Warbler that was found out at Crow Valley Campground on our way to Pawnee National Grasslands on Sunday. Even though the bird does certainly pass through here on migration I was absolutely stunned at the incomplete plumage this bird had. As you can see above there is evidence of the black face mask, rufous flanks, and yellow crown coming in, but this time of year I would have expected this bird to be in full breeding plumage. I would expect the mantle to be streaked in all plumages/ages. I am not 100% sure, but I would guess this is a first-year female given the drab nature of the bird.

Although this is a bit late in migration; I do know that these birds breed in northern Wyoming and the Black Hills, South Dakota despite what all of the range maps say. I formerly worked for Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory in those areas and we saw good numbers of Chestnut-sided Warblers up there in mid-summer. The standard breeding range for this species is northern United States east of the Rockies and even stretches down the length of the Appalachian mountains. These birds breed in secondary habitats and studies show that they have been increasing their range because of this.

This bird often moves like a gnatcatcher bopping around with its tail cocked up. This bird was difficult to photograph for that reason. My Nikon EDG binoculars came in handy with it's excellent field-of-view, even at that short distance. It was nice not to have to follow the warbler with its exact quickness or I would've been dead in the water. Can you notice the remnants of fall plumage? What I see is a partially green mantle not to mention the undeveloped face and breast. This is the first time I have seen a transitional Chestnut-sided of this conglomeration. The group I had with me and I watched this little bugger for about ten minutes while I tried to get more photos. This was certainly our best bird of the day.

We continued on to the grasslands in search of Chestnut-collared Longspur. We focused in the areas of the short-grass where there were perennial bunchgrasses of 4-5 inches (where these longspurs breed), but came up empty. Of course, we had a multitude of McCown's Longspurs along the roadside skylarking and singing their flute-like song. We even had a first-year Golden Eagle buzz our heads.

I am definitely planning another trip to the Pawnee while these birds are breeding to get some more photos. Our weekend was filled with great birds and I thank Jackie for her studious nature! Good birding to all and I hope this post provided useful information for you.

This bird was photographed with a Nikon D200 and a 300 mm AF-S F4 Nikkor lens.